Commodity display take-out unit and commodity display shelf using the unit

ABSTRACT

The invention can be used by being mounted on a shelf plate of an article display rack, prevents the shelf plate from being distorted due to a weight of the articles, prevents a distortion of an article support member, and prevents a forward feeding function of the articles from being deteriorated. In an article display and take-out unit with rollers used by being mounted on a shelf plate of an article display rack, the article display and take-out unit is provided with an article support member in which the rollers that support the articles vertically to a moving direction of the articles are rotatably installed in parallel, a rigid plate for preventing a distortion of the article support member caused by a weight of the articles, a first attachment that holds the rigid plate and the article support member and integrates them together, and a second attachment that holds at least the rigid plate at a desired height position.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an article (article for sale) displayand take-out unit structured so as to display articles such as cannedgoods, bottled goods, paper bagged goods, boxed goods and the like inline, and take out the goods in the foremost portion of the display, andan article display rack using the unit.

RELATED ART

Conventionally, in a general merchandising store such as a supermarket,a drag store or the like, many kinds of articles are abundantlydisplayed in individual display racks in an article display case 50shown in FIG. 12 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.Hei-8-24091). Since the articles are sold from the front side, the frontportion necessarily gets into an emptied state. Accordingly, a so-calledforward feeding work for feeding the articles at the back to the frontside is necessary. Therefore, there have been proposed a lot of articledisplay racks and article display devices which are provided withvarious automatic or semiautomatic forward feeding functions.

An article take-out unit 51 provided with a conventional forward feedingfunction is provided fixedly with both side plates 52 a and 52 b havinga function of comparting the articles. Accordingly, it is possible todisplay articles 53 having a size or dimension matching to a widthformed by both the side plates 52 a and 52 b, however, an additionalunit matching thereto is necessary for displaying the articles which arelarger than the width. Accordingly, in a general merchandizing store orthe like, it is necessary to prepare many kinds of display and take-outunits, and there is such a problem that a stock control or the like istroublesome. Further, in order to freely adjust a compartment width ofthe articles, there is a display rack which is provided with adetachable article compartment plate. However, in this display rack, itis not possible to securely prevent a side skid of heavy articles suchas drink bottles or the like. Further, a hanging error of the articlecompartment plate is apt to be generated, and there is accordinglygenerated such a problem that an appearance is bad or the like.

In order to solve the problem mentioned above, an article display andtake-out unit 60 as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14 has been developed(Japanese Patent No. 3126947). This is constructed by a unit main body61, an article compartment plate 62, and an article forward slantprevention plate 63. The unit main body 61 is constructed by a shallowbox-shaped frame body portion 69 which is comparted into three sectionsin its center portion, a front engagement hole 64 which is perforated ina front engagement hole portion, a rear engagement hole 65 which isperforated in a rear engagement hole portion, and an article forwardslant prevention plate support portion 67 which forms an engagementgroove 66 with respect to a front end of the front engagement holeportion, and is formed as an approximately rectangular shape made of aresin as a whole. Further, as shown in FIG. 14, three roller arrangementframe bodies 70 are fitted respectively in the sections of the shallowbox-shaped frame body portion 69 in the center portion, the rollerarrangement frame bodies 70 being provided with a lot of rollers R whichare provided rotatably in such a manner as to slide the articles 53forward. The roller arrangement frame body 70 is a shallow box-shapedmember having five rows of roller arrangement portions. Further, each ofthe rollers R having a shaft insertion hole in its center is pivotablyattached to both side wall plates 71 of the roller arrangement framebody 70 and a shaft 72 which is supported by a shaft hole formed in aroller guide wall plate 68. Each of the rollers R is attached in such amanner that a top portion projects above the top portions of the rollerguide wall plate 68 and an article stabilization auxiliary plate 73upward at about 0.3 mm. The roller guide wall plate 68 has a function ofa stabilization correction plate by which the articles slide stably. Thefront engagement holes 64 and the rear engagement holes 65 are formedthree rows per one line, and are formed in accordance with a zigzagpattern in which a position of the hole is not placed on the same levellaterally with the positions of the adjacent holes in both sides. A holeshape of the engagement hole 64 is a rectangular shape which is somewhatlarger than a cross sectional shape of the front engagement portion 62Aof the article compartment plate 62. Further, the rear engagement hole65 has the same structure.

A prior art (cf. Japanese Patent No. 3126947) shown in FIGS. 13 and 14is an article display and take-out unit 60 which has a bottom surfaceportion that slides the articles 53 forward, a front engagement holeportion that has in a lateral direction a lot of front engagement holes64 with which the front engagement portion 62A of the articlecompartment plate 62 is detachably engaged, and a rear engagement holeportion that has in a lateral direction a lot of rear engagement holes65 with which the rear engagement portion 62B of the article compartmentplate 62 is detachably engaged, and is installed to be orientedinclining downwardly toward the front side. Further, the engagementholes 64 and 65, which are formed in the front engagement hole portionand the rear engagement hole portion, are of a rectangular shape, andare provided so as to prevent a hanging error of the article compartmentplate 62, by preventing the positions of the engagement holes formed inthe front engagement hole portion and the rear engagement hole portionfrom being placed on the same level laterally with the positions of theadjacent engagement holes in both sides. In accordance with thisstructure, it is possible to securely ensure a display position of heavyarticles such as the drinking bottles or the like, and it is possible toprevent the hanging error of the article compartment plate. Further,since the article display unit can be applied to every modes ofarticles, it has such an advantage that a stock control can be easilyachieved.

PRIOR ART DOCUMENTS Patent Documents

-   Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.    Hei-8-24091-   Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 3126947

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention

A unit in the Patent Document 2 is mounted on a shelf plate, and isarranged in a state of inclining downward toward a front side. As amethod of arranging in this state, there are a method of inclining theshelf plate itself, and a method of setting a rear side of the unithigher than the front side. However, it is necessary to change thedegree of inclination on the basis of a weight of the articles, a bottomportion shape of the articles, and the like. Further, as the shelfplate, a net plate is frequently used in the light of a cost, a weightand the like, however, a flatness of a surface thereof is deterioratedby the weight of the articles and the like, and it is partly depressedor an irregular portion is generated. If the unit as mentioned above ismounted in a state in which the flatness of the surface of the net plateis deteriorated, the bottom surface portion of the unit is deformed, andthere is a risk that the forward feeding function of the displayedarticles may not work well.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an articledisplay and take-out unit which can be used while being mounted on ashelf plate of an article display rack used in most stores, can preventthe shelf plate from being deformed by the weight of the articles, canprevent an article support member from being deformed, does notdeteriorate a forward feeding function of the articles, and can displaythe articles which are different in their sizes or dimensions andweights, and an article display rack using the unit.

Means for Solving Problems

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is providedan article display and take-out unit with rollers used by being mountedon a shelf plate of an article display rack, the article display andtake-out unit, which includes: an article support member in which therollers that support the articles vertically to a moving direction ofthe articles are rotatably installed in parallel; a rigid plate forpreventing a distortion of the article support member caused by a weightof the articles; a first attachment that holds the rigid plate and thearticle support member and integrates the rigid plate and the articlesupport member together; and a second attachment that holds at least therigid plate at a desired height position, wherein the article supportmember is mounted on the rigid plate, the first attachment is installedto at least a front portion of each of the rigid plate and the articlesupport member corresponding to a front side of a direction in which thearticles move, the second attachment is installed to at least a rearportion of the rigid plate corresponding to a rear side of the directionin which the articles move, and the first attachment and the secondattachment are installed on the shelf plate, and the rigid plate and thearticle support member are mounted on the shelf plate in such a manneras to incline downward toward the front side with respect to the shelfplate.

Further, there is provided an article display rack in which the unit ismounted on the shelf plate.

In the above aspect, the first attachment has an upper stage insertionport to which the front portion of the article support member isinserted, and a lower stage insertion port to which the front portion ofthe rigid plate is inserted, the second attachment has an insertion portto which only the rear portion of the rigid plate is inserted, and therear portion of the article support member is mounted on the rigidplate, whereby the article support member is taken out while the rearportion of the article support member is prevented from being obstructedby the second attachment, at a time of taking out the front portion ofthe article support member from the upper stage insertion port.

In the above aspect, an insertion port formed in one side surface of themain body portion of the second attachment may be structured so that adistance to an upper face of the main body is different from a distanceto a lower face of the same, and not only a lower surface but also anupper surface can be functioned as a bottom surface which is mounted onthe shelf plate, by inverting the upper and lower sides of the main bodyportion.

In the above aspect, a front face stopper may be attached to a main bodybase front portion of the article support member.

It is possible to employ a structure in which the first attachment andthe second attachment are formed by an extrusion molding of aluminum.

Advantages of the Invention

The present invention provides article display and take-out unit withrollers used by being mounted on a shelf plate of an article displayrack, the article display and take-out unit, which includes: an articlesupport member in which the rollers that support the articles verticallyto a moving direction of the articles are rotatably installed inparallel; a rigid plate for preventing a distortion of the articlesupport member caused by a weight of the articles; a first attachmentthat holds the rigid plate and the article support member and integratesthe rigid plate and the article support member together; and a secondattachment that holds at least the rigid plate at a desired heightposition, wherein the article support member is mounted on the rigidplate, the first attachment is installed to at least a front portion ofeach of the rigid plate and the article support member corresponding toa front side of a direction in which the articles move, the secondattachment is installed to at least a rear portion of the rigid platecorresponding to a rear side of the direction in which the articlesmove, and the first attachment and the second attachment are installedon the shelf plate, and the rigid plate and the article support memberare mounted on the shelf plate in such a manner as to incline downwardtoward the front side with respect to the shelf plate. Accordingly, theweight of the articles is not directly applied to the shelf plate, andthe weight of the articles is applied alternatively to the integratedarticle support member and rigid plate. At this moment, the distortionis hard to be generated on the roller surface of the article supportmember due to the existence of the rigid plate, and hence the forwardfeeding function of the articles is not deteriorated. Further, since theunit is inexpensive and light in weight, is only mounted on the shelfplate (the net plate in many cases) of the article display rackintroduced to a lot of stores, eliminating the necessity to change thearticle display rack itself. Thus, it is possible to hold down anintroduction cost, and it is easy to install.

In the structure in which the first attachment has an upper stageinsertion port to which the front portion of the article support memberis inserted, and a lower stage insertion port to which the front portionof the rigid plate is inserted, the second attachment has an insertionport to which only the rear portion of the rigid plate is inserted, andthe rear portion of the article support member is mounted on the rigidplate, whereby the rear portion is taken out without being obstructed bythe second attachment, at a time of taking out the front portion of thearticle support member from the upper stage insertion port, it ispossible to take out only the article support member after beingassembled when maintenance of the rollers is performed, which isconvenient.

In the structure in which a pair of rib-shaped portions for forming theinsertion port are provided in the one side surface of the main bodyportion of the second attachment, the height from the insertion port tothe upper surface and the lower surface of the main body portion ischanged, and not only the lower surface but also the upper surface canbe functioned as the bottom surface which is mounted on the shelf plate,by inverting the upper and lower sides of the main body portion, it ispossible to easily change a degree of the decline, and it is possible tomake the forward feeding function optimum in correspondence to theweight and the shape of the articles.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment in accordance withthe present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational schematic view showing a state in which theembodiment of the present invention is attached to a first attachmentand a second attachment and mounted on a shelf plate.

FIG. 3 is a side elevational schematic view showing a state in which thesecond attachment is in use while being inversely oriented.

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the first attachment.

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the second attachment.

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view showing a state in which a front facestopper is attached to the first attachment.

FIG. 7 is a partly omitted plan view of an article support member.

FIG. 8 is a partly enlarged perspective view of the article supportmember in a partly omitted manner.

FIG. 9 is a cross sectional view showing a relationship between a rollerand a roller cover.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view in the same manner as FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is a general perspective view of the roller cover.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing a conventional article displaycase.

FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing a conventional take-out unit, and

FIG. 14 is an exploded perspective view of the conventional take-outunit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A description will be given below of an embodiment in accordance withthe present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view before an assembly for integrally mountingan article support member 3 and a rigid plate 4 on a shelf plate 2 of anarticle display rack 1. The article support member 3 is structured sothat rollers 6, which support the articles vertically to a movingdirection of the articles, are rotatably installed in parallel in a mainbody base 5. It is preferable that the main body base 5 and the rollers6 are formed by a synthetic resin material. Further, the rigid plate 4is provided on a lower surface of the main body base 5 of the articlesupport member 3; is structured so that its upper surface keeps ahorizontality; and is provided for preventing a distortion of thearticle support member 3 from being generated by a weight of thearticles. The rigid plate 4 retains a rigidity while achieving a weightsaving, for example, by using an aluminum plate, thereby making thearticle support member 3 hard to be distorted by the weight of thearticles.

Integration of the article support member 3 and the rigid plate 4 can beachieved by using and assembling a first attachment 7 and a secondattachment 8. The first attachment 7 has a main body portion 7B that hasa back face forming a groove 7A and a front face forming an upper stageinsertion port 7C to which a front portion 3A of the article supportmember 3 is inserted, and a lower stage insertion port 7D to which afront portion of the rigid plate 4 is inserted. The second attachment 8has an insertion port 8A to which only a rear portion of the rigid plate4 is inserted. A main body portion 8B of the second attachment 8 is of ahollow elongated square pole shape, and has a pair of parallelrib-shaped portions 8C provided so as to project from one side surfaceof the main body portion 8B, thereby forming the insertion port 8Abetween the rib-shaped portions 8C.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational schematic view just before the articlesupport member 3 and the rigid plate 4 are integrally assembled. Thefirst attachment 7 and the second attachment 8 are directly mounted onthe shelf plate 2, and front and rear portions of the rigid plate 4 areinserted to the lower stage insertion port 7D of the first attachment 7and the insertion port 8A of the second attachment 8. The front portions3A of the article support member 3 are respectively inserted to theupper stage insertion ports 7C of the first attachment 7. The rearportion of the article support member 3 is mounted on the rigid plate 4.

In a specific example (a manufacturing embodiment) (cf. FIG. 2), aninclination of the rigid plate 4 and the article support member 3 is setto 2 degree. Further, a distance from the main body portion 8B of thesecond attachment 8 to the rear end of the article support member 3 isset to 8 mm, an insertion amount of the front portion 3A of the articlesupport member 3 to the upper stage insertion port 7C is set to 5 mm, atotal length of the article support member 3 is set to 637 mm, and atotal length of the rigid plate 4 is set to 645 mm. Accordingly, in thecase of detaching the article support member 3 for a maintenance, it ispossible to slide the article support member 3 rearward (while detachingfrom the upper stage insertion port 7C) so as to easily detach thearticle support member 3.

In FIG. 3, a decline of the article support member 3 is sharpened morethan a state in FIG. 2, by inverting vertically the second attachment 8in the state shown in FIG. 2. In this case, an angle of gradient betweenthe rigid plate 4 and the article support member 3 is set to 4 degrees.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show dimensions (mm unit) of the specific example of thefirst and second attachments 7 and 8, respectively. The main bodyportion 7B of the first attachment 7 is of a hollow elongated squarepole shape, the groove 7A is formed by forming an L-shaped portion 7E ona back face of the main body portion 7B, an upper rib-shaped portion 7Fand a lower rib-shaped portion 7G are formed in a front face of the mainbody portion 7B, and a disc-like intermediate rib-shaped portion 7Hhaving a spring property is formed in an intermediate portion. Thesecond attachment 8 has dimensions shown in FIG. 5. These attachments 7and 8 are constructed by an extrusion molded product of aluminum. It iseasy to achieve extrusion moldings which are light and rigid and havevarious shapes by using aluminum as the material.

FIG. 6 shows a cross section of a state in which a transparent frontface stopper 9 such as an acrylic plate or the like is attached to thegroove 7A of the first attachment 7. It is possible to prevent articlesfrom falling off from the front side, by means of the front face stopper9.

FIG. 7 is a partly omitted plan view of the article support member 3.The article support member 3 is provided with a lot of retainer grooves12 and 13 in parallel for attaching a partition plate 11 in front andrear sides of a rectangular base plate 10. Both right and left sides ofthe base plate 10 are provided with retainer lacking portions 16 forattaching side face fences 14 and 15 (cf. FIG. 8). The retainer lackingportions 16 are formed at four positions per one side face fence 14 (cf.FIG. 1), and the retainer lacking portions for the side face fence 15are formed in the same manner on an opposed side surface to a directionshown in FIG. 8. Further, in close vicinity to a center portion andfront and rear edges of the base plate 10, retainer grooves 17 to 19(cf. FIG. 1, too) of the compartment plate 11 are provided in parallelto the retainer grooves 12 and 13 and in correspondence thereto, andinstallation grooves 20 of the rollers 6, which support the articles,are provided between the retainer grooves 12, 13 and 17 to 19. Therollers 6 are provided rotatably in the installation grooves 20. A shaft6A of the roller 6 is supported by a common plane edge 21 in an edgeportion of the installation groove 20.

A groove 23 provided in a bearing stripe 22A of the cover 22 is fittedto the shaft 6A of the roller 6, as shown in FIG. 9. Further, the rollercover 22 is provided with a closure member 22B, as shown in FIG. 10,closes a gap between the rollers 6, and is structured so that a rollingfriction is generated between the articles and the roller 6 and asliding friction is generated between the articles and the closuremember 22B. The articles automatically move by making a sum of therolling friction and the sliding friction smaller than a movementcomponent force generated by its own weight of the articles.

A whole of the roller cover 22 is provided with the closure member 22Bfilling in the gap between a through hole 22C for exposing an upperperipheral surface of the roller 6 and the roller 6, as shown in FIG.11, and the closure member 22B is integrally formed by a synthetic resinmaterial in the roller cover 22. An upper surface of the roller cover 22is structured so as to be somewhat lower than the topmost surface of theroller 6 at a time of setting.

The structure of the article support member 3 as mentioned above is onlyone example, and it is possible to use various structures, for example,the structures described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.8-24091, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-5082 and the like,as long as the rollers 6, which support the articles, are rotatablyinstalled in parallel in the main body base 6 which is formed as atabular shape as a whole, so as to be vertical to the moving directionof the articles. Further, the structure may be made so that a simplyframe shaped main body base 5 is integrally formed by a synthetic resinmaterial, and the rollers 6 are only provided in the main body base 5.It is possible to prevent the distortion of the frame body, that is, themain body base 5 even if the heavy articles are mounted on the rollers6, by structuring so as to support the frame body of the main body base5 supporting the shaft 6A of the roller 6 by the rigid plate 4 frombelow.

The structures of the first and second attachments 7 and 8 are notlimited to the illustrated ones. It is not limited to the method offitting the article support member 3 and the rigid plate 4 to theattachments 7 and 8, but a method of screwing them to the attachments 7and 8 may be employed. Further, the first and second attachments 7 and 8and the rigid plate 4 are formed by a manufacturing method of extrudinga heated aluminum alloy through a die metal mold, however, may be formedby a synthetic resin material. In the case of forming the attachments 7and 8 and the rigid plate 4 by a synthetic resin, it is necessary totake a rigidity into consideration in such a manner as to prevent thedistortion from being generated by the articles weight. In the presentexample, the first attachment 7 and the second attachment 8 which areinstalled to the article support member 3 and the rigid plate 4 aremounted to the shelf plate 2, however, a magnet may be attached to thebottom surfaces of the fist attachment 7 and the second attachment 8 soas to be fixed to the shelf plate 2, as well as the first attachment 7and the second attachment 8 are fixed by a screw or the like. Further,the rigid plate 4 as used has a dimension or size approximately the sameas the shelf plate 2, however, in the case that it is used only in apredetermined area of the shelf plate 2, a smaller shelf plate than theshelf plate 2 may be used. Same applies to the size or dimension of thearticle support member 3.

DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

1: article display rack, 2: shelf plate, 3: article support member, 4:rigid plate, 5: main body base, 6: roller, 7: first attachment, 8:second attachment

1. An article display and take-out unit with rollers used by beingmounted on a shelf plate of an article display rack, the article displayand take-out unit comprising: an article support member in which therollers that support the articles vertically to a moving direction ofthe articles are rotatably installed in parallel; a rigid plate forpreventing a distortion of the article support member caused by a weightof the articles; a first attachment that holds the rigid plate and thearticle support member and integrates the rigid plate and the articlesupport member together; and a second attachment that holds at least therigid plate at a desired height position, wherein the article supportmember is mounted on the rigid plate, the first attachment is installedto at least a front portion of each of the rigid plate and the articlesupport member corresponding to a front side of a direction in which thearticles move, the second attachment is installed to at least a rearportion of the rigid plate corresponding to a rear side of the directionin which the articles move, and the first attachment and the secondattachment are installed on the shelf plate, and the rigid plate and thearticle support member are mounted on the shelf plate in such a manneras to incline downward toward the front side with respect to the shelfplate.
 2. The article display and take-out unit according to claim 1,wherein the first attachment has an upper stage insertion port to whichthe front portion of the article support member is inserted, and a lowerstage insertion port to which the front portion of the rigid plate isinserted, the second attachment has an insertion port to which only therear portion of the rigid plate is inserted, and the rear portion of thearticle support member is mounted on the rigid plate, whereby thearticle support member is taken out while the rear portion of thearticle support member is prevented from being obstructed by the secondattachment, at a time of taking out the front portion of the articlesupport member from the upper stage insertion port.
 3. The articledisplay and take-out unit according to claim 1, wherein the insertionport formed in one side surface of the main body portion of the secondattachment is structured so that a distance to an upper face of the mainbody is different from a distance to a lower face of the same, and notonly a lower surface but also an upper surface can be functioned as abottom surface which is mounted on the shelf plate, by inverting theupper and lower sides of the main body portion.
 4. The article displayand take-out unit according to claim 2, wherein the insertion portformed in one side surface of the main body portion of the secondattachment is structured so that a distance to an upper face of the mainbody is different from a distance to a lower face of the same, and notonly a lower surface but also an upper surface can be functioned as abottom surface which is mounted on the shelf plate, by inverting theupper and lower sides of the main body portion.
 5. The article displayand take-out unit according to claim 1, wherein a front face stopper isattached to a main body base front portion of the article supportmember.
 6. The article display and take-out unit according to claim 2,wherein a front face stopper is attached to a main body base frontportion of the article support member.
 7. The article display andtake-out unit according to claim 3, wherein a front face stopper isattached to a main body base front portion of the article supportmember.
 8. The article display and take-out unit according to claim 4,wherein a front face stopper is attached to a main body base frontportion of the article support member.
 9. The article display andtake-out unit according to claim 1, wherein the first attachment and thesecond attachment are formed by an extrusion molding of aluminum. 10.The article display and take-out unit according to claim 2, wherein thefirst attachment and the second attachment are formed by an extrusionmolding of aluminum.
 11. The article display and take-out unit accordingto claim 3, wherein the first attachment and the second attachment areformed by an extrusion molding of aluminum.
 12. The article display andtake-out unit according to claim 4, wherein the first attachment and thesecond attachment are formed by an extrusion molding of aluminum. 13.The article display and take-out unit according to claim 5, wherein thefirst attachment and the second attachment are formed by an extrusionmolding of aluminum.
 14. The article display and take-out unit accordingto claim 6, wherein the first attachment and the second attachment areformed by an extrusion molding of aluminum.
 15. The article display andtake-out unit according to claim 7, wherein the first attachment and thesecond attachment are formed by an extrusion molding of aluminum. 16.The article display and take-out unit according to claim 8, wherein thefirst attachment and the second attachment are formed by an extrusionmolding of aluminum.
 17. An article display rack, wherein the articledisplay and take-out unit according to claim 1 is mounted on the shelfplate.